


Safe Haven

by episkeystyles



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Short One Shot, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7053025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/episkeystyles/pseuds/episkeystyles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haven is always there. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly.<br/>That's what sisters are for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe Haven

**Author's Note:**

> Just a piece I wrote for a contest many moons ago. Thinking about extending it.

p.1

We wait. We wait for people to change, we wait for things to get better. In my case, we wait on a pretty big decision- life or death. Here I sit, on a hard plastic chair, watching a muted cartoon on a small dirty screen. There are people around me, but I can't see them. All I see are the colorful characters before me, deep in a silent conversation. I can hear the people around me. I hear my mother, sniffling in the corner. I hear a man next to her, comforting her. No, this man is not my father. He is disgusting, that much I can tell. He passed the waiting room, saw an attractive lady crying, and decided to make his move. I'm no stranger to men like him. They come around a lot.  
I hear my grandmother behind me, scoffing at my mother's behavior, and I hear my grandfather, though he is silent, nodding along at everything Granny whisper-shouts at him. He and I are on the same boat. We both have to put up with the snippety women in our family.  
I wish my sister were here, so that I could whisper a secret in her ear. I would tell her, someday, Haven, we'll be out of here. Someday, we won't have to clean up after Mom's disasters. Someday, we'll both have huge families, and we'll live right across the street from each other, and we'll sit on your porch and watch our kids play and laugh at all the things we used to do when we were little. Then Haven would smirk, and she would whisper to me, yes, Ellie, but my house will be bigger, my husband will be hotter, and our kids will probably be fighting instead of playing. I would giggle, tell her she's right. Then we'd watch the muted cartoon and make up what the characters were saying.  
But Haven's not here. There's a hand on my shoulder. Haven wants to see me. I don't want to see her.  
I don't want to see the scars, the blood. I don't want to see her face, demolished. I want to remember her the way she was a few hours ago. We had a Sister's Night, which was Haven's excuse to give me a makeover and present me to whatever boys she had waiting to meet us at the movies. She smiled at me, told me, "El, this one's a keeper. If it wasn't illegal, I'd keep him for myself." She gave an exaggerated wink, finished curling my hair and leaned down next to me, staring at our reflections. She whispered a secret in my ear, "Ellie, I love you."  
She was driving the speed limit. She was sober. The driver of the F-150 wasn't. Our favorite song played on the radio, and as she belted out the chorus, she smiled at me one last time before she was catapulted into the windshield. A nurse approaches the room; I leave.  
I already know that my sister is gone.


End file.
